Friday, January 13, 2012

"Women are particularly sensitive to stress", he says, and they can't control themselves. In this particular case, it must be the fear of radiation that had stressed her so much before summer, and it manifested itself in fall when her teeth started to fall off.

In other words, he's saying she had stressed herself out from the fear of radiation, and became ill with stress-induced autoimmune disease.

What Shinzo Kimura, 44-year-old radiation specialist at Dokkyo University (radiation hygiene) and former researcher at the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Health and Labor), says about Ms. Emiko Numauchi's health problems doesn't quite add up.

On the one hand, he insists they are the symptoms of an unspecified autoimmune disease caused by the stress from the nuclear power plant accident, and she's more sensitive to stress because she is a woman. On the other hand, he says that there is no known mechanism whereby stress causes an autoimmune disease or any disease.

He pays a lip service to a possibility of her problems being caused by radiation, but quickly he assures it's feminine stress that caused an autoimmune disease that in turn caused her teeth, nails, and hair to fall off and her skin to be covered rapidly with blisters.

Kimura became a hero to many Japanese who wanted to know how bad the contamination from the nuclear accident was, when he was prominently featured in the NHK documentary series of "Mapping the radiation". A champion of people who quit his job at a government research institute to measure the radiation all over Fukushima Prefecture. Asahi Shinbun's "Trap of Prometheus" also created a series around him ("Resignation of a Researcher").

But what he said in an interview with Yasumi Iwakami the other day discussing Ms. Numauchi's condition and the way he said it have made me cautious that he may not be what people have made him to be.

What he said is the following. I used the transcript at this site. You can view how he said it in the video linked at the bottom, after 63 minutes 30 seconds into the video.

岩上氏：沼内さんの場合は放射線によるものか、それともストレスによるものか、あるいは、その他の何かによるものなのか、どう思われますか。

Iwakami: What is Ms. Numauchi suffering from? Is it from radiation, stress, or something else? What do you think?

Kimura: Most likely, it is autoimmune disease from stress. Teeth falling off, nails peeling off, hair falling off, these must be a type of inflammatory reaction due to an autoimmune disease. Red spots on the skin is also from the autoimmune disease. As the skin inflammation happens, the red spots spread.

So, the extreme stress by summer manifested in an illness in fall. It is very likely that the seasonal change triggered it. But stress was caused by the nuclear plant accident after all, so she is a victim of the nuclear plant accident even if it is not radiation sickness.

But there are individual differences. Some people are more sensitive [to radiation? stress?], and in that case this kind of thing [what's happening to Ms. Numauchi] may happen. It may be because of internal radiation exposure.

I am sure she has done health checkups with X-rays, so she must have been exposed to some radiation. But if such radiation didn't have any effect in the past, then there may be some kind of internal radiation exposure.

In Minami Soma, when I passed on March 28 from Namie-machi to Soma I used the prefectural route 15, instead of the national route 5. Even that was cut off, so I took the back route. There was a spot with 150 microsieverts/hour.

It's also a female characteristic that, because of that sensitivity, they cannot control themselves. Taking that also into consideration, I think it is appropriate to identify stress as the cause [of her problems].

岩上：自己免疫疾患が起きると、歯とか爪とか、そういうものを（自分のものでありながら）異物として捉える、という、それについては。

Iwakami: So, if you have an autoimmune disease, teeth, nails are attacked as foreign objects?

木村：免疫低下によって、感染症が拡大すると、やはり免疫が賦活化します。賦活化すると、それが手当たり次第に攻撃を始めるわけです。

Kimura: When the immune depression causes the spread of infection, the immune system is activated. Once activated, it starts to attack indiscriminately.

今まで自分の体として認識していたものが、認識しなくなって、これを外敵と認識してしまう可能性が高いわけですよね。

It starts to recognize the part of the body as foreign enemy [pathogen].

Such autoimmune diseases include rheumatoid arthritis and IgA nephropathy. The antibody called IgA (immunoglobulin A) is produced in the corpus amygdaloideum, but once too many antibodies are produced they start to attack the kidney.

そのように自己免疫系疾患が出てきたり、さまざまな病気が出てくるんですよ。

So there are autoimmune diseases and all kinds of other diseases.

ですから、ストレスによって今度は腎臓病にもなってしまうという、さまざまな病気があってもおかしくないわけですよ。

Stress can cause renal diseases. It can cause all kinds of diseases.

炎症反応が出てきている、ということなので、自己免疫系疾患の可能性が高いな、と踏んだわけです。

Because of the inflammatory reaction, I think it is highly probable that it is an autoimmune disease that she's suffering from.

Ms. Numauchi has a deep, low voice and jovial, cheerful demeanor, and by looking at her and listening to her the last thing you would think is this is one stressed-out, super-sensitive woman. She looks like the man of the house, in fact, without seeing her husband.

Instead of insisting she suffers from stress-induced autoimmune disease, Mr. Kimura should have done what he became famous for: take samples of soil, vegetation in and around her house and measure the radiation, and check her with the special equipment that was featured in the NHK documentary that can measure internal radiation easily.

Ms. Numauchi is not at all saying her problems are the result of radiation exposure. She says she just wants to know why they've been happening to her, her friend, and her husband. With a nationally known radiation specialist and a popular independent journalist telling her it's just stress because she is a woman, she must have been disappointed.

I guess her husband, who suffers numb feet and severe fatigue, must also be suffering from a feminine stress.

Here's the vid (probably against Iwakami's intention to restrict the video to his subscribers only and pay-per-view) uploaded by BakaTEPCO10 (meaning "stupid TEPCO 10"). Kimura appear safter 63 minutes 30 seconds into the video:

I don't get it. Seems simple enough to me: She is sick. No one denies her teeth falling out, etc. No argument there, right?Consider the facts: nuclear accident => sickness. So , now she's sick. What's difference does it make whether is is radiation related or stress related? The cause is a nuclear plant accident. They should have an obligation to take care of her.This sounds like the BS the US government pulls with military returning from Iraq and claiming that they aren't sick (PTSD). The woman

Does Iwakami take Kimura's side? I didn't have time to sit down and really watch the video so I only listened to it on the background. Kimura clearly is an imposter of friend of people but is Iwakami playing a role, too, or is he just too stupid to see through Kimura's lies?

Capitalism has killed off Japanese traditon. Government officials have no sense of responsibility. They are replaced every year so there is no accountability. The imperial government was more truthful than the current government.

Anyway, I agree people like this should be dragged by the Yakuza to Daiichi and forced to work under an anonymous name and forgotten.

Japanese women are the most stress tolerant humans on this planet IMHO.

As Yamashita said, "happy people are not affected by radiation so smile." Yamashita should be kicked in the balls as well as Kimura and told that "people that smile don't feel pain." This is how scientific they are.

Did this so called "expert" actually examine this women or is he just making stuff up.I suggest that this "expert" has never met or examined this women and this is the highest degree of slander that I have ever seen.I feel bad for Japan, the Corporations run the place and ordinary people are considered either stupid or dangerous. Japan's future looks bleak.

The following comment written on the previous post "Nuclear fatigue" is even more relevant here:""Does he make sense?" (regarding the comments by Kimura, radiation specialist on NHK)

NO. As a witness to decades-long severe auto-immune disease of a family member (DNA diagnosed, multiple autoimmune conditions), all together the symptoms described by the Fukushima blogger Emiko Numauchi cannot be dismissed as a simple autoimmune response from stress.

1. Auto-immune diseases can be verified with a simple blood test. Typically a specific 'antigen' is identified.

2. It is possible radiation exposure weakens body's immune system. But Emiko and her friends in Fukushima report multiple spontaneous teeth enamels chipping, water-filled blisters forming outside the skin within a few minutes of red rash, sudden gushing nose bleed.. These are not typical chronic autoimmune symptoms. Emiko would have lost total mobility by now, IF it were indeed acute autoimmune disease because the joints are the first things to be affected.

3. No legitimate medical professionals would speculate diagnosis of someone whom he or she never met before, never examined.

4. No legitimate medical professionals would divulge information of a patient or non-patient to the public, especially on a national media.

Mr. Kimura is a mouth piece of NHK and national propaganda. He deserves his license revoked."

Somehow, it would be great that donation could give the chance to Ms. Numauchi&her family to for instance fly to another country (with some Japanese speaking people there to welcome and host her), and stays there for a month or so, while getting 2nd opinion there on her health (with proper check and radiation scan).That would make it clear to the world the impact of the current disaster on people living there.

This tactic "female stress" is a very common legal tactic to try to smear a plaintiff in court. A few doctors in the US will use it when they can't find a viable cause or they are just lazy and misogynistic. This lame tactic should not be used to discredit the woman who came forward. It is a non-answer to her issue. She clearly has a major auto-immune problem and the cause needs to be found. Stress is not a sole medical factor and there is no medical basis for such nonsense.

BTW, I had a doctor claim this on me many years ago. Luckily competent doctors later found diagnostic evidence of what was really physically damaged thus, the doctor that claimed it was "stress" was an idiot. Auto-immune issues are notoriously tricky to diagnose the root cause. Mine was severe spinal arthritis and a seriously damaged thyroid. I felt like crap and was in a ton of pain.

I'm more interested in finding out what her whole body count rates are, what the radiation levels are in her living areas and what the end result of some very thorough medical diagnostics are. My totally off the cuff unprofessional guess is that her thyroid is damaged from iodine 131 exposure. Discovering that takes a very competent endocrinologist willing to do some detailed bloodwork and ultrasound exams.

"I don't think we will know the mechanism of how stress affects health".So, women are at risk, but strong men like Kimura and Iwakami are not. Ok. "Stress can cause renal diseases. It can cause all kinds of diseases". Even lonely rabbits suffer. Does stress cause stupidity?

"It's also a female characteristic that, because of that sensitivity, they cannot control themselves. Taking that also into consideration, I think it is appropriate to identify stress as the cause [of her problems]."

You know, it's bad enough that Shinzo Kamura makes a fool of himself by so desperately trying to kiss ass to Tepco and the government by blaming her clearly radiation-linked problems to an autoimmune condition...but to, in the process insult both the victim and all women "cannot control themselves" is beyond insulting. It is gender discrimination of the worst kind, because the goal is tied up to avarice, greed, and the continuing desperation in shielding those who are responsible for her sickness.

Autoimmune diseases are well known to be related to radiation exposure, as is alopecia, loss of fingernails, and other connective-tissue problems. These would include damage/loss of fingernails and skin.

In fact, all of her problems can be attributed to radiation exposure.

Tepco and the government are going to do what they can to get rulings that shield themselves from liability for radiation-exposure related disease and other problems. Once they have a few on the books, then they can use them as reference cases for denying other victims just compensation and treatment.

It is heinous that those who are responsible (Tepco, Japanese government) for the tragic radiation-exposure related problems connected to Fukushima-D are now being again victimized.

At a time when their resources are at a low point, they must fight Tepco and the government for their rights to compensation and treatment of their radiation-related problems.

If they don't, those responsible for the problems their failure to provide a safe workplace environment have caused will have legal backing to deny ALL similar victims compensation and treatment.

I hope the victims can find help from the community during this trying time, and legal pro bono assistance in their search for justice.

Have there been any funds set up yet for the victims? This would be nice to know for those of us who give to nonprofits every year, anyway, and would be more than glad to shift some of those funds to aid the legal support groups working for the victims of the Fukushima-D disaster.

"Somehow, it would be great that donation could give the chance to Ms. Numauchi & her family to for instance fly to another country (with some Japanese speaking people there to welcome and host her), and stays there for a month or so, while getting 2nd opinion there on her health (with proper check and radiation scan).That would make it clear to the world the impact of the current disaster on people living there."

This woman is sending out her personal information so that we all know the real mess that the nuclear plant is causing her, her husband and her friend. She is slowly being killed and there is nothing she can do to prevent this painful fact except document the effects she and loved ones are experiencing. Brave is what she is! I too fear that she will go missing so as to shut her up and this will be touted as silly-women-syndrome and her just wondering off. Strange that FEMA or the UN have not gotten involved. Why would that be?? They got their fat greedy fingers in very other disaster.God have mercy on the Japanese people.

For the time being the Yakuza seem content with the misdeeds of the Japanese government. What will happen when the symptoms reach the daughters and sons of the Yazuka?

Will the fathers in the Yakuza watch their babies die? How will they manage the government that has destroyed any hope of them having any future generations?

People in Japan should now record as many movies as possible and upload them. It doesn't matter if the video is only one minute long. Let the people overseas help keep track of your statements so that your names live on.

Should Japan one day be destroyed by these horrible acts,please know that the rest of the world will seek justice for her.

Funny how people are denouncing Kimura and calling for his death without knowing anything about him. Predictable really. The crowd here has determined that radiation is the cause of this woman's illness, and woe to anyone who suggests otherwise. Actually, death to anyone who suggests otherwise.

Maybe off topic but on point. 24,288 days have gone by. An endless arms race and "cheap electricity". Government and industry sophistry aside, the recollections of a "fear-monger" as he was approaching his death from cancer at age 62...

So, if it's not the 3+ meltdown fallout, I guess it must be due to either the genetically modified foods or to vaccines. The same evil super rich Satan worshipping people are responsible for all three of these.

About my coverage of Japan Earthquake of March 11

I am Japanese, and I not only read Japanese news sources for information on earthquake and the Fukushima Nuke Plant but also watch press conferences via the Internet when I can and summarize my findings, adding my observations.

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Well, this was, until March 11, 2011. Now it is taken over by the events in Japan, first earthquake and tsunami but quickly by the nuke reactor accident. It continues to be a one-person (me) blog, and I haven't even managed to update the sidebars after 5 months... Thanks for coming, spread the word.------------------This is an aggregator site of blogs coming out of SKF (double-short financials ETF) message board at Yahoo.

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